Michael Cacoyannis, 89, the Cyprus-born filmmaker and screenwriter who directed the 1964 film classic "Zorba the Greek," starring Anthony Quinn, died Monday at an Athens hospital of complications from a heart attack and chronic respiratory problems.
Cacoyannis won multiple awards and received praise for the film versions of the Greek tragedies "Electra" (1962), "The Trojan Women" (1971) and "Iphigenia" (1977). His final film was "The Cherry Orchard" (1999).
He introduced Melina Mercouri in "Stella" (1955) and worked with such other well-known actors as Candice Bergen, Katharine Hepburn, Irene Papas and Vanessa Redgrave.
But he was best known internationally for the Academy Award-winning "Zorba the Greek" — the 1964 adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel — joining up with composer Mikis Theodorakis, whose score for the movie remains an enduring Greek anthem.
In the film, a scholarly Englishman played by Alan Bates travels to the Greek island of Crete to visit a coal mine he inherited. Alexis Zorbas, played by Anthony Quinn, is his grizzled and larger-than-life cook and fixer.
The movie won two technical awards at the 1965 Oscars while Lila Kedrova won for best supporting actress. But Cacoyannis and Quinn both lost out to "My Fair Lady," which was voted best picture that year.
Cacoyannis was born in 1922 in the Cypriot port of Limassol, when the Mediterranean island was still a British colony.
He studied law in London, but soon followed his interest in the arts, working for the BBC's Greek service, studying drama, and eventually getting acting parts in the theater.
After moving to Athens, Cacoyannis made his debut as a director with "Windfall in Athens" in 1954.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gervase Duan "G.D." Spradlin, a former lawyer and oil producer who found a second act as a prolific character actor, playing authority figures in such films as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather: Part II," has died. He was 90.
Spradlin died of natural causes Sunday at his San Luis Obispo ranch in Central California, his grandson Justin Demko told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Born on Aug. 31, 1920, in Pauls Valley, Okla., Spradlin turned to acting in his 40s after serving in the Army Air Forces in China during World War II, working as an attorney for Phillips Petroleum Co. and striking it rich as an independent oil producer. He also dabbled in politics as director of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign in Oklahoma and had an unsuccessful run for mayor of Oklahoma City in 1965.
Spradlin got his start in acting after taking his daughter Wendy to audition for a local production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and wound up landing a part in the play himself.
"Being rich changes surprisingly little," Spradlin told the Times in 1967. "You'll still have to have an absorbing interest in life, something to do to make you feel alive."
When he moved his family to Los Angeles, he found steady work playing politicians, preachers, doctors, judges and military officers.
In a career spanning more than three decades, his most notable parts include the corrupt senator in "The Godfather: Part II," and the Army general who sent Martin Sheen up river to find and kill Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now."
His other film credits include "The War of the Roses" and "Ed Wood." He retired after playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in the 1999 comedy "Dick."
Spradlin's first wife, Nell, with whom he had daughters Tamara Kelly and Wendy Spradlin, died in 2000. He's survived by his second wife, Frances Hendrickson, his two daughters and five grandchildren.
PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) — Linda Christian, the Hollywood starlet of the 1940s who married heartthrob Tyrone Power and went on to become the first Bond girl, has died.
Her daughter, Romina Power, says Christian died Friday in Palm Desert after battling colon cancer. She was 87.
Born in Mexico, Christian pursued an acting career in Los Angeles and eventually signed a contract with MGM. She made her film debut alongside Danny Kaye in the 1944 musical comedy Up In Arms.
A year after appearing in 1948's Tarzan and the Mermaids, Christian married Power, one of Hollywood's most popular leading men. They divorced in 1956.
Christian's famous curves led Life magazine to nickname her the "anatomic bomb."
In 1954 she starred as James Bond's love interest in the television adaptation of the novel Casino Royale.
She is survived by Romina Power, her sister Taryn Power and eight grandchildren.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Captain America: The First Avenger" has done his duty at the box office, debuting with a $65.1 million weekend to take over the No. 1 spot from the "Harry Potter" finale.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" slipped to second-place with $47.4 million, raising its domestic total to $273.5 million after just 10 days.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:
1. "Captain America: The First Avenger," Paramount, $65,058,524, 3,715 locations, $17,512 average, $65,058,524, one week.
2. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," Warner Bros., $47,422,212, 4,375 locations, $10,839 average, $273,539,281, two weeks.
3. "Friends With Benefits," Sony Screen Gems, $18,622,150, 2,926 locations, $6,364 average, $18,622,150, one week.
4. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," Paramount, $12,051,735, 3,375 locations, $3,571 average, $325,841,185, four weeks.
5. "Horrible Bosses," Warner Bros., $11,884,319, 3,104 locations, $3,829 average, $82,566,703, three weeks.
6. "Zookeeper," Sony, $8,702,055, 3,215 locations, $2,707 average, $59,206,255, three weeks.
7. "Cars 2," Disney, $5,655,857, 2,668 locations, $2,120 average, $176,375,295, five weeks.
8. "Winnie the Pooh," Disney, $5,162,046, 2,405 locations, $2,146 average, $17,594,297, two weeks.
9. "Bad Teacher," Sony, $2,610,925, 2,034 locations, $1,284 average, $94,365,688, five weeks.
10. "Midnight in Paris," Sony Pictures Classics, $1,804,662, 621 locations, $2,906 average, $44,783,206, 10 weeks.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sherwood Schwartz, writer-creator of two of the best-remembered TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," has died at age 94.
Great niece Robin Randall said Schwartz died at 4 a.m. Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated for an intestinal infection and underwent several surgeries. His wife, Mildred, and children had been at his side.
Sherwood Schwartz and his brother, Al, started as a writing team in TV's famed 1950s "golden age," said Douglas Schwartz, the late Al Schwartz's son.
"They helped shape television in its early days," Douglas Schwartz said. "Sherwood is an American classic, creating 'Brady Bunch' and 'Gilligan's Island,' iconic shows that are still popular today. He continued to produce all the way up into his 90s."
Sherwood Schwartz was working on a big-screen version of "Gilligan's Island," his nephew said. Douglas Schwartz, who created the hit series "Baywatch," called his uncle a longtime mentor and caring "second father" who helped guide him successfully through show business.
Success was the hallmark of Sherwood Schwartz's own career. Neither "Gilligan" nor "Brady" pleased the critics, but both managed to reverberate in viewers' heads through the years as few such series did, lingering in the language and inspiring parodies, spinoffs and countless standup comedy jokes.
Schwartz had given up a career in medical science to write jokes for Bob Hope's radio show. He went on to write for other radio and TV shows, including "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."
He dreamed up "Gilligan's Island" in 1964. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat wrecks in a storm. The cast: Alan Hale Jr., as Skipper Jonas Grumby; Bob Denver, as his klutzy assistant Gilligan; Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, the rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell; Tina Louise, the bosomy movie star Ginger Grant; Russell Johnson, egghead science professor Roy Hinkley Jr.; and Dawn Wells, sweet-natured farm girl Mary Ann Summers.
Calling "Gilligan's Island" a "family," Tina Louise tweeted that "Sherwood Schwartz brought laughter and comfort to millions of people." In her Twitter post she added, "He will be in our hearts forever."
TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
He argued that his sitcoms didn't rely on cheap laughs. "I think writers have become hypnotized by the number of jokes on the page at the expense of character," Schwartz said in a 2000 Associated Press interview.
"When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail."
"Gilligan's Island" lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. A children's cartoon, "The New Adventures of Gilligan," appeared on ABC from 1974 to 1977, and in 2004, Schwartz had a hand in producing a TBS reality show called "The Real Gilligan's Island."
The name of the boat on "Gilligan's Island" — the S.S. Minnow — was a bit of TV inside humor: It was named for Newton Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s had become famous for proclaiming television "a vast wasteland."
Minow took the gibe in good humor, saying later that he had a friendly correspondence with Schwartz.
TV writers usually looked upon "The Brady Bunch" as a sugarcoated view of American family life.
The premise: a widow (Florence Henderson) with three daughters marries a widower (Robert Reed) with three sons. (Widowhood was a common plot point in TV series back then, since networks were leery of divorce.) During the 1970s when the nation was rocked by social turmoil, audiences seemed comforted by watching an attractive, well-scrubbed family engaged in trivial pursuits.
Schwartz claimed in 1995 that his creation had social significance because "it dealt with real emotional problems: the difficulty of being the middle girl; a boy being too short when he wants to be taller; going to the prom with zits on your face."
The series lasted from 1969 to 1974, but it had an amazing afterlife. It was followed by three one-season spinoffs: "The Brady Bunch Hour" (1977), "The Brady Brides" (1981) and "The Bradys" (1990). "The Brady Bunch Movie," with Shelley Long and Gary Cole as the parents, was a surprise box-office hit in 1995.
It was followed the next year by a less successful "A Very Brady Sequel."
Sherwood Schwartz was born in 1916 in Passaic, N.J., and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. His brother, already working for Hope, got him a job when Sherwood was still in college.
"Bob liked my jokes, used them on his show and got big laughs. Then he asked me to join his writing staff," Schwartz said during an appearance in March 2008, when he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "I was faced with a major decision — writing comedy or starving to death while I cured those diseases. I made a quick career change."
Besides his wife, Schwartz's survivors include sons Donald, Lloyd and Ross Schwartz, and daughter Hope Juber.
